See that little bridge between the two towers? That's where we went this morning to take a glimpse of KL in the early morning haze. We lined up at 6:45 am for tickets to spend 15 minutes in the Skybridge. Crazy! And we weren't even the first people in line!
Here is a picture of the beautiful lobby- deserted at 7am, but soon filled with business folks heading to work.
Can you spot Jack standing in this chaotic line, waiting patiently for tickets?
The skybridge probably didn't offer the best view of the city, since it was a mere 40 stories up, whereas the building itself has over 100 floors. The two towers were built in 2 years and cost about a billion each. Although both were designed by the same American architecture firm, two contractors- a Japanese and a South Korean, were hired to build each tower. I think it was intended to be sort of a competition to see who would finish first, and the South Koreans finished a little bit ahead of schedule, due to some ingenious design involving how they built the spire on top.
After breakfast, we headed over to the National Islamic Arts Museum, a brand new building directly across the street from the National Mosque. I really didn't know what to expect, but I was astounded by some of the most beautiful and intricate artwork I've ever seen. The attention to detail, geometry and patterns reflects the deep devotion of the Islamic faith, and oftentimes, verses from the Qu'ran are embedded into the art itself. We saw tapestries, traditional clothing, architectural renderings, even ancient scripts dating over a thousand years old. I learned a lot about the history of Islam, how it came to spread to China, India, and other parts of Southeast Asia, and the influences it had on architecture, script, food and clothing in each of these places. I never knew that the Taj Mahal was modeled as an Islamic structure! It was all very interesting and eye opening.
At 2pm, we headed back to the hotel and said goodbye to Thomas, tour guide extraordinaire! I was really sad to say goodbye, even teared up a little. For the past two weeks, this man took care of us, arranged for our comfort, taught us so much about Malaysian culture and history, patiently answered questions that he had answered before, told us silly jokes to keep us happy on long bus rides, and even bought a bottle of rice wine that he split with me and Jack! We had definitely grown very attached to him, especially after we got the chance to sit down and talk to him in Batang Ai during our first week. I'd like to think that he was sad to see us go too, but I guess this is his job and he's probably said goodbye to thousands of people. We definitely hope to keep in touch.
Jack and I got onto a plane once again and headed to Penang, the final leg of our trip. We arrived a little after 7pm and were picked up by our local guide, who took us for an hour long ride to our hotel on the northern end of the island, right on the beach! We dropped our things off in our room and went across the street in search of some grub. Once again, we ended up in a hawker stand food court! Yum! The stand advertising sizzling noodles with chicken grabbed my attention (that was the only thing they made) so we ordered one, got some dim sum from another stand, and two big bottles of Tiger beer rounded out dinner. 
Afterwards, we wandered the street some more, finding ourselves in a huge night market along the beach, that just seemed to go on and on. Exhausted from our day of travel, we headed back to the hotel and crashed, excited about seeing Penang during the daytime.
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